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Mom's the word: Five fresh perspectives for the New Year

The cold weather shouldn't deter us from spending quality time with our kids.Photo: Max Topchii/Fotolia.com

Lindsey Ward

Published: January 15, 2015 - 9:19 AM

I’ll admit to being one of those people who gets caught up in Christmas commercialism. I’ll wrack my brain (and my bank account) trying to find the boys the perfect gifts until my husband reminds me that all I’m trying to do is buy moments — and there are many free ways to channel that look of excitement in the boys’ eyes. Free being the operative word.

Only now am I admitting that all of the holiday hype is just that. Truth is, the best moments with your kids are the ones you can’t be one of the first 50 people to buy on Black Friday.

There’s no better month to learn this lesson in than January. (Mind you, I could have saved a lot of time and money if I’d taken a humbler approach pre-Christmas.) As we slowly recover from PCCCT (Post-Christmas Credit Card Trauma), and gladly accept the clean slate the New Year has offered us, it’s an ideal time to tone things down. Get back to basics, if you will.

Here are five ways I’m trying to simplify life for our family in the New Year. Call them resolutions if you must, but I’m calling them fresh perspectives.

1. Brave the cold.

One of our first attempts at a family walk in the frigid cold. [Photo: Lindsey Ward]

Here on the Canadian prairies, our favourite winter sport is the mad dash from the car to the back door. But there’s one mother of three in my neighbourhood who takes regular winter walks with two children in a bike trailer and another on her back. While I watch her trek through the snow in -40 C in shock and amazement, I also feel a twinge of guilt for not getting the kids out as much as I should. We can’t keep letting the weather stop us from getting fresh air and exercise — even if it’s for a brisk 15-minute walk around the block that takes longer than 15 minutes to get dressed for. It’s well worth the endorphins.

2. Use our imaginations.

A little bit of imagination can go a long way when it’s too cold to go outside. [Photo: Luckyimages/Fotolia.com]

Boredom is a state of mind — albeit an easy state of mind to fall into during these cold months. But the best part about being stuck inside all day with two little kids is that it forces you to be creative. Being on maternity leave, I realize how rare of an opportunity it is to spend an entire winter building basement forts, Ring Around the Rosie-ing on repeat, dressing up as superheros, setting up stuffed animal zoos and, best of all, just sitting back with a cup of tea and watching L, 3, and N, nine months, become playmates.

3. Work with what we have.

No room for it? Get rid of it! [Photo: Brenda Carson/Fotolia.com]

The best “renovation” we did on our house last year was tearing out the living room carpet. Turns out there were gleaming hardwoods underneath. Who would have thought? While it’s easy these days to get caught up in the notion that everything needs to be new and now, it’s actually far less complicated (and cheaper) if you just try to spruce up what you already have. Same goes for organization. Rather than buying a bunch of bins for all our stuff, I’m trying to purge it if we don’t need it — and donate it to a charity that does.

4. Eat better.

Eating a healthier diet: not just about losing weight. [Oksana Kuzmina/Fotolia.com]

This has nothing to do with dieting or losing weight. By eating better, I mean learn to be more conscious about what we’re putting into our bodies. A couple of award-winning food documentaries and some encouragement from family members is all it took my husband and I to start reading labels more carefully and trying to keep our fridge and pantry stocked with as many local, organic, humanely produced goods as our budget will allow. It’s a huge learning process, and we aim to keep educating ourselves for months – heck, years — to come.

5. Live the moment.

To say I’m going to resolve to spend more time with my kids this year is like saying I’m going to grow a booty like KimK and a breasts like Kate Upton. Between work, household tasks, errands, appointments, etc., we’d be lying to ourselves and our boys to say that we will make time to do more activities with them. It’s just not realistic. What we can do is a total cliche: make the most of the time we do have. That means coming out from behind our iPhone camera to actually enjoy Baby N’s first steps (which are due any day now), and letting L crawl into bed with us in the wee hours even if that means we’re going to get hoofed at some point. We can’t possibly carve out more family hours, but we’re sure going to live, laugh and love the hell out of each other every minute we can.